Amazing Roma!

Fountain No.1. Triton fountaing by Bernini!

 Another high speed train trip from Florence to Rome through some magnificent Italian countryside. Again booked an apartment the day before and we had found our cheapest accommodation yet! An apartment close to the railway station...although David complained all the way there as we pulled and pushed our luggage (even though we have our luggage down to a fine art
now) along the very narrow and uneven surfaces that the Italians pretend to be footpaths.

We found our fourth storey apartment...with lift...yay...and settled in quickly. Then out onto the streets of Rome looking for some Roman style action...eg very old and famous stuff. I had for the first time in our whole trip actually sat down with a map and circled all the things that we "needed" to see. The whole map was circled. This could be a problem...so for the rest of this day we would do FOUNTAINS. Rome has a lot of fountains.

Off we go...trusty map in hand looking for our first fountain. Once we found the spot, we also found a group of Lubavitch Jews (very orthodox group based in New York) lighting a rather large candelabra (gas fueled) from a cherry picker (I told you it was big!). It was raining slightly and it was windy and cold, and there was some technical hitches, but finally 7 of the 9 candles were lit (progressively lit over coming days to symbolise living each day to the full, up to celebration of Hannukka). Then they proceeded to say their prayers. David met (& interviewed for his school kids studying Judaism!) Daniel, a young Lubavitch Jewish man from America, who 

Labavitch Jews lighting their candelabra.

was studying in France & helping the local Rabbi here in Italy. Very interesting! Oh, then we found Triton Fountain designed by Bernini in 1643.

Off to fountain number 2. We met a young couple who looked as lost as we were and we decided to find fountain number 2 together. Trevi fountain...yes I know...everyone goes to see Trevi fountain...and yes, we found it...and yes, we threw some coins in the fountain...and yes, we had photo taken throwing coins...and no, we didn't make a wish...we forgot in all the excitement of being at this brilliantly designed fountain, along
with many others in the now pouring rain. We found out, that this fountain is fed by an underground spring which flow 46 kms from outside the city, and has done so for almost 2000 years. Amazing!


Throwing coins into the Trevi fountain...as you do when in
Rome!







It was getting late, so fountain number 3 would have to wait for another day.


Next morning, after a slow start, we hopped onto the Metro and headed off to the Colosseum. Yes I know...everyone goes to the Colosseum...and yes, we found it...and yes, it is big and quite awesome to see.



The Colosseum. The passageways under the floor are
actually 2 storeys high. This is where the animals and
gladiators were held until the battles.

 We found ourselves a local guide (for a price of course!) and trapsed around this amazing building which housed the gladiator games, Christian persecutions, and exotic animal battles. The statistics come out at something like 1,000,000 people and over 3,000,000 exotic animals (many animals are now extinct thanks to the colosseum - including a small breed of elephants!) were killed in the 300 years that the Colosseum was operating as an entertainment venue. Stunningly terrible stats!!

After the Colosseum, our new guide (included in the price!) took us up to Paletine Hill. Not sure if everyone goes to the Paletine Hill but if you
haven't been yet make sure it is on your list of things to do when you are next in Rome. It is amazing. Rome was built on seven hills, and the Palatine Hill is the central hill and is the site for one of the oldest parts of the city. It is in a cave here that (legend says) Romulus and Remus (R&R) were suckled by the famous she-wolf – Romulus being the one who

View from the Paletine Hill. Stunning!

founded Rome once he grew up.

Our guide suggested another story (must inject a "spoiler alert" here) to the she-wolf idea. He "suggested" that R&R's mother was one of the Vestal Virgins (VV) who didn't quite remain faithful to her VV order. Usually VVs who were found to be pregnant were killed immediately, but in R&R's mother's case she managed to talk herself out of being killed (???!!!!) and fobbed the resulting twins off to a prostitute who raised them.

R&Rs home!

Then there's the story about R&R fighting over where Rome should be built...Paletine Hill or the other, not so high, hill next door. They agreed on a competition, whichever hill was visited by the most vultures during the next day would be the winner. Remus come over to Romulus the following day and said he had been visited by 7 crows, Romulus immediately declared himself the winner as he said he had been visited by 15 crows. Remus didn't believe him and demanded a recount. Romulus got bored and killed him and thus Rome (named after Romulus) was built on Paletine Hill. The buildings on the hill once included palaces of Augustus, Tiberius and Domitian, as well as other important Romans of the period, and a temple dedicated to Apollo. Mussolini also built himself a palace on top of this hill...just because he could. There was a stunning view from the top of the hill which overlooks the Roman Forum.

We then walked down to the forum, the house of the VVs, the spot where Julius Caesar was supposed to have been murdered...and then, sat down on a piece of marble and contemplated all that we have seen during the day and rested our feet (I haven't mentioned everything)...it was a BIG day.

The dome of the Pantheon...open to the elements!

But there's more...we decided to go on a night tour and saw a 10 metre high statue of a horse in which 12 people had dinner by entering through it's rear end...then we saw Trajan's 35 metre column built in 113 AD, adorned with continuous reliefs depicting battle victories. Trajan's statue that was on the top of the column was replaced by a statue of St Peter in the 17th century. Then we saw Trajan's markets. Then Piazza Navona...with its three fountains (yes we are back looking at fountains - even though we still need to track down Fountain no. 3). The fountain in the middle of the square was Fontana dei Fuimi, another fountain by Bernini...a very interesting fountain (but I won't go into it now - intrigue, jealousy and poor sportsmanship!)...then onto the Pantheon..amazing to have survived almost intact for 2000 years...diameter is the same as its height 43.3 metres, and Raphael (artist) is buried here...all of this and more, on foot! Sore feet and tired ...but good Italian food & wind at a nearby (recommended) restaurant helps!

Another fountain by Bernini, very controversial at the time!

The next day off to find fountain no. 3 at the bottom of the Spanish Steps...yes, I know everyone goes to see the Spanish steps...yes, we found them...yes, everyone in the world was there...no, we didn't get to see the Fontana della Barcaccia (yes...you guessed it - designed by Bernini) because the Pope was coming. We had wandered around the top of the stairs for quite a while - the view is fabulous and we had also dropped into the church at the top for mass...then we wandered down toward the fountain, but realised that they had cordoned off the square at the bottom (which included fountain no. 3) and people were hanging around waiting for
something to happen. We didn't know it was the Pope at that point in time, but someone informed us that he was going to be arriving in this street (of which we had a great view) at 4.00 pm. It was 2.30 pm...and raining...and windy....and cold...let's get some lunch!

Fountain No.3 cordoned off in preparation for the Pope!

We had a lovely lunch at a swanky restaurant, as it was the only one open on this Public Holiday, all the other restaurants had closed and everyone was "popping" out to see the Pope...in the cold windy rain. Brrr! Stuffed zucchini flowers, seafood pasta, zabaglione and Italian white wine, inside...& warm....hmmm!

Lunch inside where it warm and cosy!
Not outside with the Pope!

Next day off to the Vatican...yes, I know everyone goes to the Vatican...and yes, we found it (and our guide - do you know how big this place is???!!???)...and yes, it is an amazing place to visit. We arrived at 9 am and left and 6 pm.

We started in the Vatican museum...stats: if you visit every item for 1 minute each it will take 12 years to get through all the items held by the Vatican...and then there are the "secret" antiquities (which are not so secret as we saw the "secret" antiquities book in the gift shop!) Our guide took us on a highlights tour of the museum past Michelangelos, Raphaels,
tapestries, statues, room upon room of magnificent artworks, items from the catacombs (where the Christians hid in miles and miles of tunnels under the city - if we had another day we would have visited these!) ceilings, walls, doors, and then...the piece de resistance...the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo (M) is a genius, seriously! He carved David at 24 years old out of a dodgy piece of marble, the St Peter's Pieta at 25 years old and then
these frescoes. The guide informed us that M felt that painting was a little bit beneath him, but he took the job anyway learning the technique from scratch...although he had it down pat by the end. Amazing, amazing
stuff! We sat for a long time first studying the work & then just soaking it in.

This rather large bowl is made out of a single piece of
Pohphyry which is more 10 ten times more valuable than
gold. This would make this piece worth....??????

After lunch and resting of feet, we headed off to St Peter's Bascillica. Another piece of brilliant architecture, and filled to the gunnels with
statues, artworks and dead people (the bones of St Peter are buried deep beneath the altar). It is something to behold. We were able to get some
photos of M's famous Pieta. Beautiful! David was quite taken with the story of one of the (only) 3 women buried in St Peters - Queen Christina of Sweden, an intelligent & cultured woman who in the 1655 publicly relinquished the throne, having converted from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism. She moved to Rome & was seen as something of a trophy as you can imagine! Her extensive library is now part of the Papal library.
We were quite moved at one stage with the blessing given to us on the commentary on the audio guide- "May Christ's love be with you every step of the way and may it blossom in works of peace" We leave this blog entry (&Rome) praying that this blessing will be yours too, as you prepare for the Christmas celebration of Christ's birth.

St Peter's Basillica!

St Peter's and Christmas tree!